Samantha Power says her top priority is to defend Israel in UN role

Samantha Power speaking at the White House
Photo by: REUTERS/Joshua Robert

Samantha Power, 43, the Irish-born nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations has stated that one of her top priorities will be to defend Israel at the U.N.

She was speaking at her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She is expected to be confirmed.

Power moved to the U.S. from Ireland when she was nine years old and grew up in Georgia. She was introduced by the two Republican Georgia senators to the committee.

She stated that defending Israel at the UN from unfair attacks would be a large part of her job.

“The United States has no greater friend in the world than the state of Israel,” she said. “I will stand up for Israel and work tirelessly to defend it.”

When asked by Senator Marco Rubio about alleged anti Israeli comments in a 2002 interview Power disavowed them. She also said she regretted her tone in some comments she had written about U.S. foreign policy.

Speaking on the Israeli remarks she said; “I have dissociated myself from those comments many times,” adding, “I gave a long rambling and very remarkably incoherent response to a hypothetical question I should never have answered.”

Asked about her alleged anti American comments she said; “There are things that I have written that I would write very differently today.” “This country is the greatest country on Earth. I would never apologize for America.”

Speaking about the situation in Syria she stated. “I believe that America cannot — indeed, I know that America should not — police every crisis or shelter every refugee.

“While our goodwill knows no bounds, our resources are finite, strained by pressing needs at home. And we are not the world’s policeman. We must make choices based on the best interests of the American people.”

She listed her other priorities as fighting UN corruption, standing up to repressive governments and championing human rights.

Senator Bob Corker the Republican ranking member signaled early on that he would support her.

“I think you’re going to be a significant and positive force at the United Nations,” he said.